Vacation pics mined for vital data: Who went where, when?

Those pictures of Yellowstone you uploaded to Flickr are doing more than delighting your friends and family — big data scientists are mining the photo website for data that reveals visitation patterns of natural attractions.

When working out how to staff a national park, roadside attraction, or other tourist spot, it helps to know when people tend to visit, how long they stay, and so on. Normally, planners and rangers use on-the-ground methods like checking booking records, turnstile counts, and surveys.